Far more insidious, more corrosive and dangerous than the Governor of New Jersey playing traffic warden is the story of Gov. Chris Christie’s secret meetings with a gaggle of billionaires – and the legality of the spending by the front organization set up following these hidden hugger-muggers.

In 2012, a tax-exempt “social welfare organization” called Committee for Our Children’s Future, CCF, ran a series of TV ads telling America that Governor Christie has performed more miracles in New Jersey than Jesus did with loaves and fish. The New York Times found some old college chums who said they set up the “Children’s” crusade for Christie. But the ads cost about $6 million. The Times didn’t ask how Christie’s buddies, not wealthy guys, found the six big ones.

But CCF was not started in 2012. When I heard “Children’s Future,” my nose started twitching. I smelled Koch.

COVERT OPERATIONS
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
BY JANE MAYER
AUGUST 30, 2010

snip
A few weeks after the Lincoln Center gala, the advocacy wing of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation—an organization that David Koch started, in 2004—held a different kind of gathering. Over the July 4th weekend, a summit called Texas Defending the American Dream took place in a chilly hotel ballroom in Austin. Though Koch freely promotes his philanthropic ventures, he did not attend the summit, and his name was not in evidence. And on this occasion the audience was roused not by a dance performance but by a series of speakers denouncing President Barack Obama. Peggy Venable, the organizer of the summit, warned that Administration officials “have a socialist vision for this country.”

Five hundred people attended the summit, which served, in part, as a training session for Tea Party activists in Texas. An advertisement cast the event as a populist uprising against vested corporate power. “Today, the voices of average Americans are being drowned out by lobbyists and special interests,” it said. “But you can do something about it.” The pitch made no mention of its corporate funders. The White House has expressed frustration that such sponsors have largely eluded public notice. David Axelrod, Obama’s senior adviser, said, “What they don’t say is that, in part, this is a grassroots citizens’ movement brought to you by a bunch of oil billionaires.”

Of course, I’m kidding. That could never happen here, except it sort of already has. When Reid called the Kochs un-American, a powerful government official fired a shot across the bow of two private citizens who have acted within the law while contributing wealth to the economy through employment.

Yes, it was bad when right-wingers called Obama un-American, but Obama is the most powerful man in the world and the rabble is just that. Reid owes the Kochs — and the American people — an apology.

In a rare moment of honesty, Chris Christie spoke the truth about what the Republican Party stands for at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today. Christie told the audience Republicans need to have a positive message as he proclaimed:

We have to start talking about what we’re for and not continuing to rail against what we’re against is because of one simple reason, our ideas are better than their ideas.

And according to Chris Christie, what are Republicans for? They are for the Koch brothers. Christie blasted Democrats and defended the Koch brothers by stating:

What they’re for in Washington, D.C. is to have the leader of the Senate Democrats stand up and rail against two American entrepreneurs (the Koch brothers) who have built a business, created jobs and created wealth…Harry Reid should get back to work and stop picking on great Americans.

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